Highly-refractory article



Patented Jan. 2, 1923f UNITED STATES OFFICE.

HENRY H. BUCKMAN, OF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, AND GEORGE A. PRITGHARD, OF

NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNORS T BUCKMAN & PRITCHARD, INC., 015 JACKSON- VILLE, FLORIDA, A CORPORATION OF FLORIDA.

HIGHLY-REFRACTORY ARTICLE.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY H. BUCK- MAN, a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, and GEORGE A. PRrrcHARD, a resident of New York, N. Y., and being both citizens of the United States, have jointly invented certain new and useful Improvements in preparation, therefrom of furnaces, retorts,

muflles, crucibles and the like, or the walls,

or other parts, thereof, or their application as cementing agents to the repair of such vessels; and the objects of our invention comprise the provision of a material, or materials, or composition of materials, and a method of utilizing the same, whereby, with greater economy and certainty than heretofore, there is, among other desiderata, impartable to such appliances increased resistance to high temperatures, and to the passage therethrough, or thereover, of the electric current; corresponding durability; exceptional stability; and capacity for being effectively and readily repaired and maintained, our present application for patent being. a division of our pending application, Serial Number 329,610, filed October 9,1919.

We are aware that the use of zirconium oxide (ZrO has been heretofore suggested as desirable for somewhat similar, or analogous, purposes, but we believe that we are the first to have conceived, and by our researches and tests to have demonstrated,that zirconium silicate (ZrSiO commonly known as zircon, or sometimes as hyacinth, jargon, etc., and preferably as produced by nature, or even also as synthetically produced, behaves, several importantrespects, in a markedly and usefully different manner from said oxide, when subjected to the action of carbon, or other reagents, at

Application filed March 1, 1921. Serial No. 448,899.

the high temperatures referred to. For whereas under such conditions the oxide appears to be too readily, or prohibitively, attacked and its identity destroyed by the carbon, or other reagents, the silicate is comparatively only moderately, usually only negligibly, so attacked at even extremely high, or comparatively much higher, temperatures.

Our collaboration in this field has now, We

believe, firmly established that zircon, i. e.

zirconium silicate, (ZrSiO possesses, by

itself, an unprecedented combination of useful qualities, or properties, chief of which are: (1) exceptional chemical inertness even at very high temperatures; (2) a very high melting point.so high, indeed, as to have proved hitherto underterminable accurately by us; (3) an extremely low co-efficient of expansion; (4:) a great resistance to the passage of the electric current, therethrough, or thereover, and even at high temperatures; (5) a great resistance to the passage,

or transmission, therethrough of heat; (6) a remarkable capacity for autocementation, or agglomeration, when reduced to a state of fine comminution.

Our researches and tests have also demonstrated that when thus finely comminuted zircon, or zirconium silicate, is, as preferable, mixed with water, or other suitable liquid, or moisture-impartive, vehicle, and made, as per well-known procedures, into a batch from which, owing, in part, to

above referred to autocementative or agglomerative properties, can be fashioned shapes, that even moderate heating, for example at temperatures even as low as about 800 0., will sufiiciently stiflen, orv cause these shapes to be heat-compacted, or baked to a hard, durable, mass, although the true conium silicate, is to be used by itself alone in. production of our novel highly refractory products, itis highly preferable, if not essential, that at least part of it be finely comminuted. If it is to be used in association with other constituents of our highly refractory material, or final product, as hereafter referred to, this function of a binding agent may be performed either by a certain amount of finely comminuted zircon, or by one of the other materials. 7

' In order to describe more fully'our invention and to enable others skilled in the art to practice it, We here give the following several examples of our procedure.

articles, or final products, to be composed, or to consist, of zircon, or zirconium silicate, by itself, or essentially by itself, unassociated with other thereto designedly added material, we take twenty-five per cent of zircon which is in the form of particles, i. e. which is naturally, or has been, finely comminuted (say for example to 200 mesh, or smaller), and mix it thoroughly with coarser zircon (say 90 mesh or larger). If a pressure mold is to be employed, we prefer, though not absolutely. necessary, to use a very little water, or other moisture-impartive medium, with the mix, or batch, i. e. just about suflicient to insure a thorough distribution of the more finely comminuted zircon, or zirconium silicate, over the surface of, and interstertially between, the larger particles. The shapes produced by usual procedures as, for example, in pressure molds, from this novel batch we dry, and usually fire so as to heat-compact the components thereof, as per any one of the several usual and well-known procedures of the art thus imparting greater shape-retentiveness to the conglomeration of constituent material. If a pressure mold is not to be employed, we prefer to use sufficient water, or other suitable liquid, or moisture-impartive, vehicle in the mix to so moisten the batch as to insure not only a proper distribution of the finely divided zircon throughout the mass, but also a proper working consistency. This is also the case when we desire to use our highly refractory material as a refractory cement,

applied to where indicated while plastic as by trowelling etc., and thereafter dried in place.

We have found that, depending upon the particular art in which it is used, our novel highly refractory material, or products, may

best be composed either wholly of zircon, or zirconium silicate, as above described, or also 1n many other cases, or for special uses as, for example, in the manufacture of those well-known products known as ceramic wares, or ceramics, it may advantageously be mixed, or associated with, or, to an extent substituted for, other materials, ineluding several of those already employed in the art for analogous purposes as, for

example, for the china clay, or kaolin, or

flint, or other usual constituents of said ceram1cs. But in all cases we have, thus far, found 1t preferable, if not essential, to have at least five per cent, by weight, of zircon, or zirconium silicate, present in the final product.

Examples of our above referred to employment of zircon or zirconium silicate, with associated materials are, among others, as followsz-We sometimes compose our highly refractory articles, or ceramic prodnets, of zircon, or zirconium silicate, asso- When we desire our highly refractory -stance,'we select, for example, a suitable clay, say one composed importantly of an aluminium silicate, and intimately mix it with, as above described, finely comminuted and coarser zircon in such proportions that the finely comminuted zircon will be to the coarser zircon as about one to three, and the. total zircon to the aluminium compound will be about as one to one. Other proportions, includin those relative to other constituents of t e final product, may, as indicated by the particular use designed, be also used as will readily be apparent to those skilled in the art. Our procedure from this point to the manufacture of shapes, or of cements, follows that above described.

In other cases respectively, or for special purposes respectively, we similarly, and by the same procedures, associate the zircon, or zirconium silicate, in ourhighly refractory material, or products, with respectively'the following substances, elements, or compounds, i. c. with carbon, (preferably graphite), or with a refractory carbide, (preferably carborundum).

In each of the above specified composite forms of our invention involving association of the zircon with other substances, our researches indicate that the zircon behaves differently, and desirably, as compared with other substances, or reagents hitherto employed in lieu thereof in such products. We also in some cases have found it advantagous to useany usual such batch as may be employed in production of refractory mate rials of the kind and for the purposes referred to and add thereto a greater or less proportion of zircon, or zirconium silicate, treated as above;

The term zircon employed in our hereinafter made claims is to be understood in each instance as referring to a chemical combination of zirconium, silicon and oxygen designatable by the formula ZrSiO and irrespective of its origin being synthetic or natural.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is the following, viz:

con (ZrSiOQ and a refractory carbide. 15

2. As a new article. of manufacture a highhighly refractory material, containing carly refractory material, containing a refracborundum, and also a chemical compound of 10 tory carbide and also a chemical compound zircon, silicon and oxygen. of zircon, silicon and oxygen. 5. A refractory article containing car- 5 3. As a new article of manufacture a borundum and-zirconium silicate.

highly refractory material, containing zircon (ZrSiO and also carborundum. HENRY H. BUCKMAN.

4:. As a new article of manufacture a GEORGE A. PRITCHARD. 

